Dry Shampoos: The Secret Behind This Magic Beauty Product

Dry shampoos have recently gotten a lot of notoriety. If you’re running late on time (hit that snooze button a few too many times, huh?), your hot water runs out, or your hair is just looking a bit on the oily side — dry shampoo is the hero swooping into the save day. But how does this amazing product work?

To break it down, what makes hair appear oily is a combo of accumulated cell debris, chemical components of sweat and various tiny pieces of dirt picked up from the air. The way the dry shampoo works is by absorbing all that gunk into kind of clumps that you can then brush out quickly and easily.  There are two types of dry shampoo: no rinse shampoo and powder shampoo.

No rinse shampoo, like Oscar Blandi’s Dry Shampoo ($19), is the consistency of normal wash out shampoo and you lather as if it was normal shampoo. After you’re done, you wipe it off with a towel. For powder shampoo, like Bumble and Bumble’s Dry Shampoo Hair Powder ($19), the user will generally just sprinkle or spray the powder onto their hair to absorb the excess oil. Be careful with this one because getting the powder out of your hair can be a tricky process. Something to remember is that though both of these types of dry shampoo do provide a relief from excess oil in the hair, they do not provide as good of a clean as a normal wash shampoo does.

Moral of the story?  Dry Shampoo can be a real time saver for the gal on the go who doesn’t have enough time to lather up, but it’s not a long term replacement for the real deal.

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